Storytime: Here's to Maurice

It's been a while since I've posted on anything about picture books so I thought today would be appropriate to dedicate a post to Maurice Sendak. If there was one picture book every child should own I think it would most definitely be Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are. It's a classic that's perhaps a little dark venturing into the wild world and imagination of Max filled with frightful monsters & beasts, and a wild rumpus.

Despite its initial negative criticism when it was first published and released in 1963, almost 50 years ago, this book still lives on today as fresh as ever, never phasing itself out of the shelves of bookstores large and small. I actually never realised how old it is until recent years - goes to show how timeless this picture book truly is! Even though it was written and illustrated such a long time ago the illustration, the storyline, and the typography is still able to touch hearts; the morals and messages of the story we still can all relate to.

It also makes me think how it has always been a book I've been able to relive over and over, from being read by our librarian in early primary, studying and falling in love with it in year 8 English and finally adding it to my collection in late highschool. Its charm for me is and was the wonderful illustrations that is so full and rich of textures matched with storytelling that simple yet absolutely magical.

This book was the seed of my dream to publish a picture book and will continue to be magical as it was always. While Maurice Sendak has already departed this world his picture book Where The Wild Things Are will certainly live on in the hearts of both children and adults alike. Thankyou Sendak for bringing a beautiful treasure into our world.

I'll end this post with a  excerpt from a interview with Sendak via Hellogiggles; it made me smile :)